Technical Lead – Java / Kotlin / AI

Technical Lead – Java / Kotlin / AI

Manchester | Hybrid | £80,000–£95,000 + benefits

Adria Solutions is recruiting a Technical Lead for a fintech business developing a new card and payments processing platform.

This is a hands-on opportunity to combine software development with technical leadership. Joining an early engineering team with established backing, you'll influence the architecture, contribute production code and guide the engineers delivering the platform.

The role

Reporting to the CTO, you'll lead technical delivery across the payments platform, helping the team resolve complex challenges and build secure, reliable services.

You'll use AI coding tools within your daily development workflow and support colleagues in applying them effectively, maintaining strong standards for code quality, testing and security.

Key responsibilities

• Design and build payments services using Java, Kotlin or Scala.
• Develop asynchronous, event-driven systems to support card and payment processing.
• Remain actively involved in coding while providing technical direction to the team.
• Resolve technical blockers, review code and mentor engineers.
• Work with colleagues to meet compliance obligations and card scheme requirements.
• Integrate third-party services and manage the technical challenges of connected payments systems.
• Shape architecture decisions and establish engineering standards.
• Collaborate with platform engineers to improve CI/CD pipelines and provide fast development feedback.
• Guide the team's use of AI coding tools.
• Own features through design, development, testing, deployment and ongoing support.
• Work closely with product, design and the wider engineering team.

What we're looking for

• At least eight years' commercial software development experience.
• Strong development experience with Java, Kotlin or Scala.
• Experience building asynchronous, event-driven systems.
• A track record of mentoring and supporting small engineering teams.
• Strong database experience, using technologies such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, DynamoDB or Cosmos DB.
• Experience integrating third-party services.
• Regular use of AI coding tools within an enterprise production development workflow.
• Strong knowledge of automated testing, version control, CI/CD and secure coding.
• Confidence taking ownership and making technical decisions in an early-stage environment.
• An interest in fintech, payments or improving access to financial services.

Desirable experience

• Designing, developing and supporting payment processing platforms.
• Building new platforms from the ground up.
• Working in banking, fintech or another regulated sector.
• Cloud development using AWS, Azure or GCP.
• Containers and infrastructure as code.
• Establishing engineering practices within a growing team.

The package

The role offers a £80,000–£95,000 salary, a generous holiday allowance with bank holidays in addition, a pension scheme and hybrid working in Manchester.

You'll also benefit from continued learning support, opportunities for career progression and significant input into the technical direction of a new payments platform.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK without requiring visa sponsorship.

Interested in combining hands-on engineering with leadership in payments technology? Apply with your CV or contact Adria Solutions for a confidential discussion.

Technical Lead – Java / Kotlin / AI - Manchester